before and after ~ then and now
Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 10:45AM 
Radishes • click to embiggenSince my acquisition of an Olympus E-P1 (late last December) I have gradually evolved to the point that almost all of my personal picture making has been accomplished with just 1 lens - the Lumix (Panasonic) 20mm f/1.7 (35e=40mm).
Truth be told, when I first mounted/used the lens, I was more than a bit apprehensive about its angle of coverage/view - 57˚/diagonal - which tended to be more toward the "normal" range, albeit slightly wide-angle, than the wide-angle range that I was accustom to using - could I adjust to the "tighter" / less inclusive angle-of-view? Would I not be able to get the picture by limiting my use to that lens? What would I "miss"?
In fact, every time I left the house I took my E-3 and its array of lenses, so, in reality, I wasn't actually limiting my picture making, equipment wise. I could turn to my regular lens-of-choice, the Zuiko 11-22mm f.28-3.5 (with µ4/3 adapter), at anytime that I deemed it necessary.
However, and much to my surprise, the need to do so never arose. The transition to "seeing" within the lens' angle-of-view was entirely seamless and intuitive. There was no angst, consternation, thrashing about, or any other form of conscious awareness that something had changed. Life and picture making went as before.
Why this came as surprise to me is somewhat of a mystery or, perhaps more accurately, the result of advancing age mental decrepitude - what I was doing, normal-ish focal length wise, was nothing, more or less, than exactly what I had been doing in my 8×10 view camera salad days.
During that picture making period, a 10inch (254mm) f6.3 Kodak Commercial Ektar lens was the only lens ever mounted on my 8×10 Arca Swiss for personal work (as opposed to commercial work). That focal length lens falls into the normal-ish, albeit slightly wide-angle, range on an 8×10 view camera.
So, double duh .... I didn't feel constrained or limited then so, not surprisingly, I don't feel so now ... triple duh.
In fact, like back then, I feel rather "liberated" in my picture making - it is almost totally about seeing and picturing. The only technical considerations are exposure and focus, which, quite frankly, makes making pictures about as easy as it gets.
food
Reader Comments (3)
Mark, Curious if you think that blogging has played a role (important role?) in your own development as a photographer? If so, how would you characterize the effect it has had?
Personally, I think it has for my own work. For one thing it has caused me to want to work more with a "project" state of mind. Although I actually find the "blog post" to be the perfect photography project length, since it does not require a long time to produce the project portfolio, it allows me to have many projects instead of just a few large ones (although someday I do want to focus on that as well as time permits), and I can add written commentary to complement the project, if I choose to.
Not directly related to your post, but it made me think about this. But, I agree the Panasonic 20/1.7 is a cracker lens. Love it.
Some nice photos, but I keep getting turned off by the frame you're using. I prefer a simple black or offset-white frame, not something that pretends to be the result of a hollowed-out enlarger carrier.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabiengelle/3853721632/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ben-m/3983885771/
The second picture should be radish was